Internet Marketing & Sales Articles

It's been a while since I wrote an article on the process of changing web hosts. However, with more and more companies changing hosts for a myriad of reasons, an update on the process and understanding of the same seems in order.

Most of us rely on spellcheckers. But beware – “Satcom” can become “sitcom” in the blink of an eye. Besides spelling errors, there are other spellchecker quirks just waiting to trip you up. Why should you care about misspelled words, typos and bad grammar? Because if your marketing materials are sloppy, what does that say about the rest of your services?

One of my favorite pastimes is debunking SEO myths – and there are many! I could probably come up with 100 SEO-related ideas or actions that people think are helpful, but which in reality won't provide them with more targeted traffic to their websites.

With our struggling economy and the knowledge that it's probably not going to recover any time soon, many companies are faced with some hard decisions. Layoffs, hiring freezes, forced vacations, work furloughs and "stay"cations are just some of the cost cutting efforts that are being implemented to meet the financial challenges these companies are facing.

School may be out for the summer, but that doesn’t mean you’re not thirsting for knowledge! And there’s nothing more important when it comes to your website than knowing the answers to the questions below.

If by chance you don’t think Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites are influencing the future of online communication, think again.

The prevailing marketing attitude amongst a large percentage of Independent Professionals is what I call "Silver Bullet Marketing."

In our last article, we gave a brief overview of what Twitter is and does. Today I’m going to cover some of the mechanics of Twitter so that you can Tweet with confidence!

As I was hunkering down last Saturday morning to begin a productive day of work, my computer suddenly shut down. My attempts to reboot were moot. It simply would not power on. Because I run daily backups of my most important files plus weekly backups of all files (on an external hard drive), I wasn’t overwhelmed with panic, though I was certainly annoyed that my so-called productive day had just come to a screeching halt and looming deadlines would possibly be missed.

Many people will tell you that in a recession, marketing is more important than ever. If you go into hiding when times are tough, you'll drop off the radar of your prospective clients.

By now you probably have either heard about Twitter or already have a Twitter account of your own. With the recent publicity this social networking tool has received (Oprah had an entire segment dedicated to this on April 17th), the number of new Twitter signups is growing exponentially. To some it’s a phase, to others a craze--but make no mistake, it’s as viral as viral marketing gets! So, just what exactly is Twitter?

As an avid sewer (aka seamstress), over the years I’ve accumulated quite a large fabric “stash.” For those of you in the know, this stash is often our guilty little secret that has grown from fabric purchases over the years and may never see the light of the sewing machine. Likewise, we go to this stash often for inspiration prior to starting our next sewing project.

My folks were recent victims of a scam involving an unscrupulous company that preys on seniors and other vulnerable people. This company promised to clean their air ducts and also offered an air duct sanitization service (which doesn't exist) for a fee of around $169. My folks let me know that their work was complete but that mold was found in the air ducts. A return trip in 6 months would be needed for a fee of around $350.

Today marks the 11th year anniversary of the Phoenix Lights phenomenon (watch the video below if you’re not familiar with the occasion). I have to say, if I saw those lights above my home, I might be as convinced as those that purport its actuality eleven years ago. Then again, with so many credible sources noted in the video, maybe you’re already a believer?

On occasion, clients have asked how they can edit a website we have created for them. For clients who do not have a maintenance agreement with us or are just trying to save a few dollars, we can understand the desire to be autonomous and have more direct control over their website.

Admittedly, you might need to be my age or a tad (smidgen!) older to remember the David Carradine series Kung Fu. In it he was known to Master Po (and others) as Grasshopper, the young, willing student who became an expert in the Martial Arts.

You receive “The Focal Point” newsletter free. I wrote this article for free. Today in my email inbox I was offered free software and strawberries. Free webinars, free white paper downloads, free software trials. Heck, even the email marketing program I use is FREE! FREE! FREE!

I posted a blog about this free Press Release service called PRlog.org and today I want to share some tips with you to make the most of your PR efforts. These are not proven techniques but I don’t see how they could hurt (and really should only help) so fasten your PR seat belts.

I was watching a very interesting show (I think on PBS) last night about the mortgage crisis, how it came about, and what the consequences have been.

I know everyone is trying to cut down on printing, this being the era of green and all, but sometimes you just need to print a document or in my case more often, a web page. Did you know that you can customize the way your pages print from IE with a few bits of nondescript code.

Last week I was doing some research on Keyword Tools and besides the standard WordTracker and Trellion, I came across what looked to be a pretty good product. I’m not going to name it here because, #1, it wasn’t a very good product and #2, my experience trying to get a refund left an even nastier taste in my mouth. Let me back up just a bit.

Several of our clients utilize a Content Management System (CMS) that allows them to add articles and blog posts to their websites. We use the same tool on our site and love it (and so do the search engines).

It’s always rewarding when I teach a client something and they have one of those “ah ha!” moments. Such was the case today as I explained the thought process behind creating anchor text links. We analyzed a blog entry that she made and one that she made and I later corrected. Let’s look at them here today so you can benefit from this “ah ha!” moment, too.

If statistics are correct, then you (yes, you dear reader) either didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions or you’re just about ready to wave the white flag. 2009 may not be the year when YOU drop 10 pounds or quit smoking, but it’s not too late to redirect that intense energy you felt on January 2nd on your web site content. And you still reap the benefits. So let’s take a look at three of the ten hottest resolutions this year and see how they can make 2009 your web site’s best year ever.

Wrong! I’m here to set the record straight on what information you can and cannot use on your website. Because, believe it or not, just because you find a great article or picture on the Internet and you know how to copy or save to your desktop, it does not make it public domain.

Webeze, a professional website design and Internet marketing firm, announces the launch of their new website.

At a time when print marketing and postage alone are considered a marketing luxury, more and more companies are turning to email as their primary marketing tool. And with good reason. Email marketing remains relatively inexpensive, easy to do A / B split testing (and again inexpensive) to verify a campaign’s effectiveness, it’s viral and above all else, it works!

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s how to use a new software program or trying to figure out why your email stopped working, at some point in time we all need to contact a company and ask for support.

The peak buying (err…holiday) season is just weeks away and the predicted sales forecast is frosty to say the least. Consumers are evaluating their spending priorities before parting with their holiday cash in this looming economy. So before announcing your company’s upcoming holiday promotions, make sure you’ve got your offer straight.

With the recent news of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sara Palin’s email account being hacked, it’s time for all of us to take a close look at the passwords we have chosen to secure our online personal information.

Yesterday I received a call from a distressed past client. It seems their website was no longer up and she wondered if we could help. It took a bit of effort to determine how the website was “lost” in the first place, but we finally deduced:

It’s no secret that many businesses, especially small businesses, are feeling the pinch of our challenging economy right now. And during these lean times, it’s understandable that a business owner will try to seek out as many ways as possible to cut back on expenses. But cutting down the wrong expenses could jeopardize the sustainability of the business.

At the time of this writing, there are approximately 125 days left before Christmas. That may seem like a long ways off, but as we all know, these days can fly by faster than Santa can say Ho Ho Ho! For many of us, our businesses are impacted by the Christmas holiday, so it’s prudent to start planning ahead.

There’s a lot of information about the benefits of having an older domain name, with speculation about new sites (domain names) being “sand boxed” until they prove to some search engine bot that they (the website) are the real deal and not a fly-by-night scam operation.

Running your own business can be tough. There are definitely pros and of course, there are cons, but for me the hardest part is staying upbeat and positive. This, for those of you who know me, might come as a surprise. I’m a pretty upbeat if not darn right perky person (which apparently can be irritating to some people when they first wake up in the morning). Still, I’m human. And sometimes the pressures of "the business” gets to me.

If you read Part 1 of this series, you’ll recall one of our clients could not send email to AOL recipients. Well, we got that sorted so now we’re ready to tackle a new topic: sporadic email delivery.

Doesn’t it drive you crazy. You send a well-crafted email to a potential client only to learn a few days later they never got it. You send it again but still, no luck. Something has GOT to be wrong with your email so, logically, you call your web host to see what’s going on. (A side note, remember, if you are having email issues, you should typically contact your web host, not your Webmaster).

Scottsdale website design firm Webeze announces the launch of http://www.sportshernia.com, a site dedicated to information about sports hernias and the treatment available for them.

Scottsdale website design firm Webeze announces the launch of http://www.silverandblacktelecom, who specializes in business telephone systems and support for small to medium sized businesses.

Scottsdale Web design firm Webeze announces the launch of www.carmelleazhomes.com, a custom website for Scottsdale and Phoenix Realtor Carmelle Bernier.

Each New Year brings renewal. New projects, new priorities, new possibilities. This renewal applies not only to your personal life, but to your professional life as well. Building a business is a lot of hard work, and the beginning of 2008 is a perfect time to review your company’s website to ensure it is also working hard to add to your bottom line.

When you create your first AdWords campaign, it can be a little daunting. Even though Google recently improved the interface, it’s still not as intuitive as it could be and you may find yourself getting lost on occasion.

We create a lot of realtor websites and probably for a very good reason. Because the sites we build become an integral marketing tool for our Realtor clients, providing them with a source of leads from the Internet other Realtors only wish they could get!

Our favorite kind of website traffic is free or organic. It’s the result of a solid search engine optimization and search engine marketing campaign and when successfully implemented, can bring a website a lot of targeted (free!) traffic.

In Part 1 I showed you how to find and segment groups of keywords for your Google AdWords advertising campaign. Today in part 2 I'm going to teach you how to write the actual content of your ads. Even if you don't speak perfect English or have poor grammar, just follow my step-by-step blueprint below and you can't lose.

Google AdWords is the most popular advertising platform in the world, making Google billions of dollars in advertising revenue each year. When used correctly, Google AdWords is one of the most affordable ways to promote your products or services.

Spam is reaching an all time high this past month, and even with the implementation of some pretty aggressive spam filtering systems, there is still quite a few making their way into our email in boxes.

If you read my last article about the power of the Title Tag, you know how important this is when trying to get search engine rankings for your targeted keyword phrases.  A few clients contacted me and said, "but I don't know what words to target."

Since the dawn of time, OK maybe since 2003, I've been telling Webeze clients the importance of the Title Tag when they write an article or blog post. In fact, we had our CMS customized so that these page titles would appear in the HTML Title tag area of the page on the Internet. In fact, the developers of our software liked the idea so much they included it as a feature in their latest release.

There is only so much time in a day right?  So it just makes sense to focus as much of your time as possible on the things that produce the highest payoff.

Knowing exactly what your clients and prospects are thinking is a big part of the marketing game. Often times small business owners think they know their customers want, but assumption is primary tool of choice drawing these conclusions.

The fantasy persists. We arrive at work, reflexively start our computers, and find an automatic “Out-of-Office Assistant” universally displaying the following message across the country...

Generally when you think of press releases improving your business you think of getting the word out about a new product or service through a variety of media sources. In other words, press releases are a marketing strategy that is used in addition to, rather than as a part of, your search engine marketing campaign.

It’s not even your birthday or anniversary and yet your in-box is suddenly full of messages that say "You've received a greeting ecard from a colleague!.."

If you’ve been following our series of articles on the power of press releases, you are no doubt already working hard on crafting your next press release. If not, it’s time to get busy. Ideally you should be sending out at least 1-2 press releases a month.

For most people, one of the more arcane things about writing a press release is the “news” aspect. Whenever someone reads a “how to write a press release” article, the text always mentions that the release has to be "newsworthy". I’m convinced that this part, more than any other, keeps many people from using press releases.

Email marketing, as many of us know, can be a powerful, inexpensive method of reaching our most active potential or existing customers. It can boost not only our direct sales, but also our credibility and referrals.

Scottsdale Web design firm Webeze has helped Spinnaker Microwave launch a new full-service Web site featuring a highly functional yet modern design.

With more real estate marketing and sales taking place online, Indiana Realtor Paula Henry knew her business' Web site needed to be updated and upgraded. After working with Webeze, a full-service Web design and marketing firm, Henry's business now has an online presence - hometoindy.com - that serves both her needs and the needs of her clients.

Webeze, a full-service Web design firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona has announced the design and launch of a new customer Web site for Integrity Inspections of Arizona. The new site - http://www.integrityinspectionsaz.com - provides Integrity Inspections customers with information, answers and a professional design.

Webeze, a full-service web design firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona has announced the launch of http://www.ValuQuestRealty.com, the new online home of Illinois-based discount realty company ValuQuest Realty.

A common way of announcing the start up of a business, or of announcing a development within a business, is through the use of a press release. Press releases are written documents which are designed to grab the attention of people who work in the media (journalists, editors, etc) who then pick up the story and report on either the entire thing or certain important components using their own angle.

PR is such a powerful marketing tool that I simply can't say enough about it. And yet, most small business owners don't spend the time and energy they should developing positive press about their firm.

What's the difference between a successful small business and a struggling one? You can take two service-based businesses that by all appearances are exactly the same. They provide the exact same service with the same level of experience and professionalism. Yet one business is very successful and the other struggles to keep the doors open.

So the other morning I woke up from a rather bizarre dream. It was one of those dreams that left quite an impression upon waking. You know the type – the kind of dream that was so involving that when you wake up, you find yourself somewhat yearning to go back to land of the purple marshmallow people (or wherever you were… maybe I should cut down on the chocolate before bed, huh?)

Most of the websites that we build try to engage the site visitors enough so that they will either download a free report, sign up for a newsletter or request more information on any number of topics. The whole purpose of this, besides being a provider of quality content, is to capture the visitor's email address so that we may send targeted email messages to them and, over time, hopefully convert the prospect into a client.

You've got to hand it to Rhonda Byrne, creator of the DVD movie and author of the book, "The Secret." She's gotten tremendous PR, including two Oprah programs dedicated to The Secret (Some would "kill" for that kind of exposure!)

The typical marketing brochure doesn't demonstrate how your firm is different - create a suite of education based materials and stand out from the competition.

For those of us who work out of our homes, the concept of an office is very different than an office in corporate America.  For me, my “home office” was actually a corner of my den. It consisted of a hodgepodge collection of desks, tables, file cabinets, and hundreds of feet of tangled wires. Since my foray into business was somewhat accidental and unexpected, I really didn’t “plan” anything out.

I live in Arizona, which is one of the few states that does NOT recognize Daylight Savings Time. Trust me, we get enough daylight (sun!) without the aid of DST. But, for those of you who don’t live in the state that boasts over 300 days of sunshine, take heed.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you have surely sensed that love is in the air. When it comes to Valentine’s Day, we tend to forget that some of the most vital elements of the occasion do not just apply to our personal relationships; they are also suited to our business transactions. Here are some ideas on ways to maintain that important “love” relationship with your clients.

One of the most exciting aspects of building a website for a client is when we get to deliver our initial comps to them. A comp is a detailed mock-up of a design or designs that visually represents how the website will look when complete.

Up until 2 years ago, I lived my entire life in California where when people talked about rock-n-roll they were referring to earthquakes and not the great music! Because of the frequency of earthquakes we experienced and the anticipation of the next “big one,” many of us had earthquake preparedness kits. That way, if we did suffer from a major earthquake, we had enough supplies to last us a good long while, because just like in any disaster, more people tend to be lost in the aftermath rather than the main event.

When used correctly, networking is one of your most cost-effective small business marketing tools. But, don't approach it as a method to sell. Networking is the process of creating relationships where you can help others achieve their goals, and they can help you achieve yours.

Bob Parsons credits 16 rules for propelling him from humble youth to his role today as CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com. He's graciously allowed Webeze to post these 16 rules on our site. I keep a printed copy next to my desk and find myself reading it several times a week.

The blog; what can be said that hasn’t been said before? In all truth, very little, but there is still a seeming lack of businesses willing to take up the “challenge” of running their own blog. Those that have done so often report their findings and invariably they are positive reviews of both the blogging process and the results of their business blog. In a bid to hammer the point home we’ve compiled a list of ten advantages to establishing and maintaining a business blog.

Often simple things really matter. And the use of keywords in linking text is one of those simple things that turn out to be hugely important. Linking text, sometimes called anchor text, is the clickable text that takes people to another page or resource. You need to choose that text carefully.

Web logs or blogs have been around for quite awhile. This would account for the estimated 30-60 million numbers of blogs in existence with new ones sprouting at a rate faster than rabbits can produce offspring.

Are you making the same marketing mistakes almost everyone else is making? When you're working hard to provide your services to clients you've got one big problem: You're typically an expert at the service you provide, not marketing to consistently attract your best prospects and clients. So that means when you do any marketing you're likely making some mistakes. Some of the mistakes are small, but some of them are major. They could be costing you thousands of dollars in business.

It’s inevitable. Everyone hits the wall. Whether you’ve been blogging ten weeks, ten minutes, or ten months, eventually you’ll find yourself with absolutely nothing to say. Or so you think.

Your favorite thing about having a blog may soon be this - they naturally attract search engine traffic. Blogs already have optimized site architecture. Most are set up with a clear navigation, where every page is set up to link back to the other main pages. They also have the inherent potential to be well-linked.

Seems the blog craze is really catching on as our clients are asking more and more questions about blogs and what they do every day. We thought we’d share some of these questions with you and provide our response.

If you're like me, whenever someone offers me something free, you're just a little skeptical. But I think "FREE" has received a really bad rap. After all, we offer a few free things on this site, like our Website Planning Guide. We don't make any money from this and really just want to help people define their website development goals in a clear and concise manner. And if we make a new client out of this effort, well, that's just terrific, too!

Focus on winning the keyword phrases that your prospects might actually use to find a business like yours and build your pages around them.

If you've been publishing for a while, your newsletter content mix may be static. Maybe each issue includes the same tired content: one press release, one Top Ten Tips article, and one News From Headquarters feature. Or maybe your newsletter is still relatively new, but in the hectic days of launching it you concentrated on building your subscriber list and graphic design, not content. If so, now is the time to take a hard look at your newsletter content.

Are you networking to build and grow your business? With practice, anyone can master the art of business networking. But are you ready to leverage the collaborative power of networking to take your business to a whole new level?

It seems weekly (sometimes daily) that I learn a new tip or trick that has really saved me some time. I'm going to start listing them here on this article so if you want to learn new tips and tricks, you might want to bookmark this page. And if YOU have any great tips or tricks, please share them with us and we'll add to the mix.

If you're like me, you subscribe to several ezines (electronic magazines). One of my favorites is the Small Business Brief Newsletter which is put out by the folks who wrote the very popular Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing.

If you read our recent article "Yes, You CAN write," you know the importance of writing articles and that it's really not as hard as one might think. Beyond writing your own articles, there are lots of authors (including myself) that allow articles that they write to be reproduced on someone else's site. Usually all that is required is that their bio is included at the end of the article to give them proper credit and that the article is not altered or edited in any way, plus a link back to the author's site. A courtesy email to the author letting them know where the article is posted is appreciated but not required.

Part of a successful search engine marketing campaign includes writing and publishing articles to further strengthen your website’s position as an authority site. To refresh your memory, search engines measure a site’s authority by a combination of size, importance and relevance.

If you spend any time reading SEO forums or blogs, you've surely heard people talking about the dreaded "Google sandbox." Now personally, I am not a big believer in the idea that Google puts every new web site into some kind of holding pen, but clearly, there's something going on.

Some new insight on this approach is literally changing my life. I decided to share it with you in this edition of ABCD Grow so you can decide if you're ready to change your own life. I'm not talking about incremental improvements, but rather transformational improvements.

Here's a little marketing puzzle for you: The owner of a carwash wants to increase business and decides on this straightforward plan: He has classy fliers printed up and hires teenagers to put the fliers on every dirty car in every parking lot for miles around. The teens put out thousands of fliers, but after a brief blip, business is right back to where it was before the fliers. What went wrong?

When it comes to breaking through to your customers' email in box, it's getting to be less about what you say and more about how you say it. The spam net that i.merchants must circumvent is getting ever more sophisticated and, dare we say, overzealous. In fact, recent surveys indicate that more than one-third of permission emails that consumers want to receive from trusted sources are being blocked by email filters and corporate firewalls.

You probably already know that if you have a business, a website is a necessary tool in your arsenal of marketing tools. Whether you use your website as a lead generation tool or simply an on-line brochure, it's one of the best ways for customers to learn more about your services and help them take the next step and contact you.

A domain name, such as web-eze.com, signifies your own address on the Internet. As no two parties may ever hold identical domain names, it is truly a unique identifier of you or your company. It is how your customers will remember you and find you among the millions of other web sites on the Internet.

Every website needs a place to call home (Web host/server). It's the place where all of your website files reside so that when a person types in your URL, your website will appear -- and you want to be sure that 99.9% of the time, your site DOES appear when accessed. You also need a host so that you can receive your domain-based email.